Mass Effect IV - 10 Things That Will Kill It

The Mass Effect franchise has fast become one of the most popular action-RPG franchises of all time, and a legendary sci-fi series in its own right. The first two games were critical (and commercial) darlings, while Mass Effect 3 was still a worthy entry despite not quite meeting the high expectations. Bioware’s creative universe, inhabited by bizarre creatures and filled with incredible locations, has resonated with fans worldwide.

Thanks to the series’ cult-like following, Mass Effect 4 is by far and away one of the most hotly awaited sequels of all time. While the game has been officially announced, EA and Bioware have been extremely tight-lipped with regards to the project, with only a few titbits of information being shared here and there.

For example, they’ve made it clear that Shepard’s story has ended, and the fourth entry won’t be a direct continuation of the original trilogy. Of course, we also don’t know whether that means it’ll be taking place a few years after Mass Effect 3, just with new characters, or if it will be set hundreds of years later.

Either way, Bioware need to take some lessons from the more questionable aspects of Mass Effect 3, if they want the franchise to live on beyond the fourth game. In this list, we’ve put together a list of 10 things that would totally kill the franchise if they were included in Mass Effect 4.

Some things on this list have already happened, and have "killed" the franchise for many fans. Thing is, there are always new fans who appreciate the changes. ME1-3 was probably the single-greatest example of this as we watched the experience move from RPG to shooter over the course of the trilogy.

Unfortunately if you're an RPG fan, you're getting left behind. As far as EA is concerned, sales went up, up, up with the evolution so I'm sure they assume they're doing something right. There's every reason to think ME4 will be closer to ME3 than ME1, if not further pushing the full-on shooter experience.

I enjoyed all the games so far, so I will likely enjoy ME4. It's just tough to think of what 'could have been' had they stayed closer to the ME1 formula.

Yes, I wished they had stayed closer to ME1 with the "sense of wonder" and exploration, and I definitely wished that the aging consoles hadnt put such a dent in designing ME3 (not enough memory for aninamtions, like holstering your rifle and having everything connected to one button)

there we have it, it will be great as long as casey hudson is not mentioning pressing button (singularis)

Originally Posted by rjshae
In fact, ME3 was so 'lousy' that it 'only' made $200 million and became a top seller on the Xbox. They had better learn their lesson…

That would mean sales of 10m (with dev getting about 1/3 of RRP on average). Can't picture that unless you have a source other than VGChartz obfuscation/guesswork. Hopefully you aren't confusing sold with 'sold through'.

Also even if half that at 5m at full price is true, what good is that if 3m of those were pre-orders on reputation, and those folks ended up so bitterly let down that they won't touch another BioWare product…

They should make ME4 a co-op game like Divinity: Original Sin. I'd love to explore space with one of my buddies, put in a character creator too for more fun. Heck, you could allow players to romance each other, that would silence the requests for more romance interests and make the deviants shut up. Then they'd have to awkwardly ask a friend to romance them, haha.

But yeah, I hope they will make it a co-op game or if they can't do that I'd like to see a Mass Effect MMO.

10. Action Over RPG
No.
It'll sell to braindead peaople - and they're currently the majority when it comes to games. Others work and don't have time for more grind.

9. DLC, DLC, DLC
Yes.
It's not just me, I'm just very loud about it. And it's not just this game.

8. Rushing To Release
Huh? No.
Since when Bioware had a rushed release?

7. Linearity
Another no.
Who cares if a game is linear or not - if it's fun?

6. Making It Too Alien
Again no.
People want new, different, exotic and extravagant stuff in sci fi game. More alien the marrier!

5. A Rehash Of What Came Before
No.
Prequel or prologue if properly made can still be an awsome thing.

4. Too Big A Focus On Multiplayer
Absolutely yes.
The worst part of ME3 was not plotholes nor cut out DLC, but gambling and repetitive MP on lousy Origin servers.

3. No Impact From Previous Games
Not really.
Especially if they hide plotholes better than in ME3.

2. Excessive Fan Service
No.
The article is about ME4, not about spin-off material.

1. Meaningless Player Choices
Yes.
But it's not… Choices. You can love the voyage even if the ending is rotten.
The problem can be major plothole in the ending, introduction of completely new characters at the end, using villains from phonegames and comics in a wrong way like everyone knows who they are, pay-2-win scheme to persuade people into buying DLC.

Anyway, that article is not serious and most of those 10 things numbered can't kill ME4.

Originally Posted by Thorwyn99
I somewhat enjoyed ME3 for what it's worth but the ending completely destroyed the franchise for me, haven't had any remote interest in any of it anymore.

A lot of people jumped onto the ME3 ending hate bandwagon but can you actually tell me what you expected, what you wanted and what was wrong with what you got? I think you just hate it to seem to be with the edgy cool kids and not because it was bad.

I mean they even made a huge DLC available for free even though it was fine as it was just because loadmouths like you whined so much. What more do you want?

Originally Posted by Digger Nick
A lot of people jumped onto the ME3 ending hate bandwagon but can you actually tell me what you expected, what you wanted and what was wrong with what you got? I think you just hate it to seem to be with the edgy cool kids and not because it was bad.

I mean they even made a huge DLC available for free even though it was fine as it was just because loadmouths like you whined so much. What more do you want?

No again i think the cool kids praise ME3 .

Ok what i wanted is relatively easy.
An ending where my choice before matter more than giving me access to some more colours.
My personal preference would have been an ending where depending on how big your score is you could actually fight the Reapers and win or lose.
You should always have a chance to win but with less score you get the odds stacked more and more against you.
I never liked the Reapers are just trying to save the organics angle, nor the complete universe reset at the end.
That's personal preference though.

I would have settled for something that actually made sense and didn't involve a plot device just thrown in for the sake of having a plot device.
ME2 did the whole choices matter thing decently well, it was too easy to get the perfect ending but your choices actually mattered at least some toward the ending.

In ME3 the effect of the choices was adding an extra colour.
Where 2 of the colours lead to an ending which basically was exactly what 2 of the brainwashed antagonists wanted (Blue for Illusive man and Green for the ME1 guy that i forgot the name of).
It seems the ending was just quickly cobbled together and it felt completely detached from the rest of the game.
What really killed it for me though is that it felt like nothing that I did in ME1, 2 or 3 mattered, at all.
And any prequel they might do now would give me the exact same feeling.

And yeah it's nice they did the DLC, but making endings I don't like more elaborate doesn't make them better.

Funny thing that the only ending that made somewhat sense after all the fighting(red) was the easiest to get.

What I expected? Well, a meaningful ending, respecting the choices I made on the way to it. It's much easier to say what I didn't expect. Not some ass-pulled deus ex machina, and a very poorly executed one at that. Not so much plot-holes you couldn't even drain your spaghetti with it. Not shitting on your previous choices. Not having to play multiplayer to unlock all the colours for the ending. And so on.. Seriously, are you trolling or something?

The ending was exceptionally bad. The one place where I disagree with the popular opinion is that while the ending was bad the game was good, because it wasn't. Simplified, with RPG elements barely present, story weak and villains poorly designed. It was mediocre shooter with horrible ending.

2. See past the colours, it's completely different endings. The DLC even adds a whole new one. Do they really spoonfeed you everything visually? Even between the different outcomes the small things differ widely. With the DLC nothing is left unexplained or unclear.

3. It's not a deus ex machina, the crucible was introduced early on and there was proper buildup for the ending during the entire game. Every plot hook not relating to that was resolved along the way.

Fungus - it's almost excactly the same game as ME2 gameplay wise but improved. FFS, it's even many of the same characters from ME2 doing a return. How can it be worse if it's pretty much the same?

There's nothing to debunk, the ending sucks, and the problems with basic narrative design are not even subjective, it uses cheap tricks and poorly. And clearly you have a different value of 'improved' than my dictionary. I think the word you were looking for was 'simplified'.
Not that ME2 was great and without problems, I could point a few, but in the end it was good enough. ME3 was a turd.